


the beginning of eternity, the end of every place

by Code16



Series: second in Heaven [1]
Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Aftermath, Alpha John, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bonding, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Empathic Bonds, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Nonconsensual bonding, Not!Fic, Omega Harold, Omega Verse, Self Condemnation, Self-Hatred, unintentional bond
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-05
Updated: 2016-10-05
Packaged: 2018-08-19 18:51:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8221274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Code16/pseuds/Code16
Summary: Alpha John, homeless and aimless and suicidal in New York, breaking into a hotel room to find out who exactly someone tried to hire him to grab and steal from, not at all in the kind of state to have been watching his own cycle properly. Omega Harold, planning his heat in his private hotel room. A society that doesn't blame omegas for this kind of thing (if someone thinks they won’t be able to stop themselves from assaulting people they’re the one with the responsibility to do something about that). A bond (not planned, nonconsensual) - and the aftermath.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Additional content warnings: suicidalism, rape culture mentions, people in relationships with their rapists, justice system issues, alcohol mentions
> 
> Notes: 
> 
> -People do not have ethical obligations of care, emotional labor, etc, toward their rapists. At all. Some people who hurt others have their own things they need help/support with. That is not, and is never, the job or the responsibility of their victims. (Some people choose to do this, which is their right, but it is not, and is never, any kind of obligation, moral requirement, or anything like that and should never be treated as such.)
> 
> -People have the right to themselves. Treating suicidal people like they are doing something ethically wrong against people who will be hurt by their deaths/like they are bad for this/etc is not alright and not true.
> 
>  
> 
> So out of some previous a/b/o thoughts I ended up with kind of weird worldbuilding thoughts about non-rape-culture legal response things (which isn’t to say they’re necessarily *good*/don’t have problems to be clear. Just that particular thing). And then that didn’t fit in the setup I'd started thinking in so I was trying to plan a different one.
> 
> So.
> 
> (Originally posted [on tumblr](http://findundergrounddragoutofwater.tumblr.com/post/149877020429/cw-suicidalism-rape-rape-culture-mentions))

Alpha!John, homeless and aimless and suicidal in New York. 

Couldn’t care less about his own life, at this point, but that doesn’t end up the same as not caring about anything at all; when that whoever menaces/tries to take from that family John’s shared an encampment with, John reacts. 

Brushes off the thanks, after, tries to just have it be forgotten, but some people take note.

He receives - a note, probably. With an address, a name, description of an object. Some advance payment, probably, promise of more. Date, time, location. ‘Mutual benefit’.

John crumples the note and tosses it, of course - some shadow whoever’s benefit isn’t something he gives much of a damn for at the moment, and issues getting money if he to whatever amount felt like it isn’t particularly the reason he’s here. Takes the money to some liquor store. Figures they might come after him, but - worst case, it’s a way to die requiring less decision making than most.

But in the end he finds himself - curious, anyway. Who is this person he’s supposed to steal from who someone has gotten all interested in. And, well, it’s not exactly like he has heavy demands on his time. So he maybe uses a bit of the money he hasn’t drunk through yet to get himself in a state less likely to be noticed and thrown out, and goes to check out this address. (Obviously throwing out the note is no obstacle; John’s memory is perfectly up to the task, even with the state’s he’s in).

The address is a high end hotel, which is interesting but doesn’t tell him much, and there doesn’t seem to be a way around to get much more. 

So (of course) John ends up breaking into the hotel room.

Except of course a thing with high end hotels is that they’ve got guests who can afford to pay for the expensive forms of privacy. Which is to say, John doesn’t know Harold is in heat until he’s already in the room with him. And John has been on his own for a few days, staying away from people, hasn’t been watching his own cycle properly (not that the inebriation helps with that). So, well. a/b/o reality ensues.

 

They wake up next morning to authorities. (Another thing about high end hotels is that they notice discrepancies, and Harold tends to be quite punctual in when he calls for certain things, and given the getting distracted so to speak John didn’t have the chance to entirely clean up after the break-in part). And, well, given the break-in part it’s kind of obvious what happened, even if the smell and the sign of the bond didn’t testify just as clearly that this wasn’t the pre-desired, consensual kind of situation. So there’s a team of advocates, for Harold, and some armed people with restraints, for John.

Of course, in some a/b/o societies things would go very differently. ‘It’s biology, alphas can’t help themselves, omegas should take better precautions’. Etc. This isn’t one of those societies. People don’t have the ethical duty not to get hurt; people have the ethical duty not to hurt others. Harold gets to go about as he wishes, and if someone thinks they won’t be able to stop themselves from assaulting him they’re the one with the responsibility to do something about that. (sidenote, there was a version earlier where the event happened outside, but then that didn’t work as well, so). 

So Harold gets the advocate team, and aural specialists who can help him keep away the bond-side things if he wants so he can have the chance to think, and resource provision/access for support in aftermath and support in the decision making and for places to talk to others who’ve been in the same place and ones who made either choice. (Whether he makes use of any of this, and how much, is of course entirely his decision). John gets a cell, and chemicals that’ll help hold bond-side things away from Harold. (I think this might also be where he then meets (alpha) Carter. Who has pretty particular opinions on alphas who won’t get the idea of ‘you’re not wanted’.)

The law is very clear on these things. If the omega wants the bond severed, the bond is severed. The authorities will deal with the alpha. If the alpha wants the bond severed, the bond is severed. Nonconsensual bonding is cruel and unusual punishment, even for this crime. If the omega does not, and the alpha does not demand severing anyway - well, that choice is theirs to make too. They’ve been deprived of their choice once too many times already.

Harold - can feel the bond. He wanted it that way. Not the full force, he’s not stupid. But he wanted to - have the information source, if he can. And - he can. He’s closed himself to the bond near completely - he doesn’t need the specialists help with that, he can more than do it on his own. The alpha - hasn’t. Harold can feel him. Felt him before, that moment right before in the hotel room. After, in that morning, before they were brought away. His present and hints of his past, what brought him here and the ’no no not this’ and the ‘what have I done’. Harold has spent months staring at a board of numbers, of lives he could do nothing for, and here thrown right in front of him is - a life. 

John - would gladly take a death any number of times more painful than a bridge right now. Except then his bondmate (the word makes him sick to think) would feel him die, and John has more than no right to put him through that. He’s expecting severing - knows he deserves it absolutely, every horrible moment and everything that comes after. But if not, then - he has more than no right to put his bondmate through severing, if he doesn’t want it.  _Anything_ , John thinks. Whatever his bondmate decides, any public punishment or private retribution, every mandated control and anything beyond it. It will never turn back the clock, it will never redeem him, it will never be enough. He will deny it nothing, withhold or spare nothing from it.

(And of course also,  _someone is after his bondmate,_ and on the list of things he has no right to, ‘protective instincts’ are right at the top given that the top of the ‘people who hurt Harold’ list is currently him. (It’s not, but John doesn’t know that). But someone is  _after_ him, and of course the guards aren’t willing to take a message to the man he  _raped and forced a bond on_ , don’t want to hear his excuses, but what is he supposed to  _do._  (Finally, finally, someone listens - maybe Carter, or maybe Harold influences something. Take down his story, take a message away. And he has no right to know who’s protecting Harold or make judgements on them and certainly, certainly not to even picture himself in that role. (It won’t get out of his head). But he’s safe, that’s what matters, he knows and he’s safe)).

Harold tells them - he’s not breaking the bond. 

John tells them,  _anything_. 

**Author's Note:**

> [My tumblr for these kinds of things](http://findundergrounddragoutofwater.tumblr.com). I love fandom social things, and anyone who feels like they might want to message etc me for any reason is encouraged to totally do so.


End file.
